During her interview with Miyako to join B Komachi, MEM-cho reveals a little secret: she’s been flubbing her age to the public. She’s not really 18…she’s 25. Miyako is both enraged and impressed! But MEM-cho has a very good reason to fake her age.
Her original dream was to be an idol, and despite her being one of three kids to feed, her awesome single mom told her to pursue that dream. But her mom ended up in the hospital from overwork, and MEM’s window to enter the idol world closed.
By the standards of the idol industry, anything past 20 is not only ancient, but forbidden. MEM feels she’s being presumptuous to ask for a chance, but it’s Ruby who first offers her hand and tells MEM that age doesn’t matter. Kana, who was shitcanned at the tender age of 15 from her child actor agency (shudder), empathizes with MEM’s pain.
Ruby and Kana, two girls whose motivations and personalities couldn’t be more different, are the same in that they’re both warm, caring, and welcoming people, at least when it comes to MEM-cho. It’s enough to make MEM cry. It’s here where Aqua gets his first cold shoulder from Kana.
Back at school, Frill overhears Ruby and Minami talking about Love Now and joins in the conversation with gusto and dry frivolity that belies her public image. Both Ruby and Miami sit chastened and rebuked for judging a book by its stoic cover. For believing the lie when they knew it was one. But as Minami says, funny girls don’t often get work, since they’re viewed as rivals by male viewers.
Speaking of rivals, there are several dozen of them vying for the best view of Aqua reading in the courtyard. His turn in Love Now made him an instant celebrity at school—not that he’d engage with it in any way—but that only adds fuel to the already smouldering fire in Kana’s gut.
Back at Strawberry, the New B-Komachi gets off to a running start online thanks to MEM heavily promoting them to her hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Twitter and Instagram. As for the songs, Kana says Miyako is still speaking to her music people, so there’s nothing to do but sit tight.
Not so fast, says MEM, already taking the reigns. They have the entire B Komachi back catalogue to practice, since Strawberry owns and controls it. So the trio starts that practice, and Kana finds it increasingly hard to match Ruby and MEM’s energy. While sitting out in the hall alone, Kana begins to wonder why she wanted to be an idol in the first place.
That reason—Aqua, the one who asked her—appears with a cold bottle of water and a “good work.” But again Kana tells him to buzz off. Aqua tells her if she keeps it up, even he’ll get hurt by it. This sends Kana into a spiral of resentment and regret. Before she can say anything more to Aqua, he’s gone.
That night, Aqua meets with Kaburagi in a fancy austere restaurant where the sushi is $300. After giving his young friend every opportunity to back out before he hears too much, he gets into what he knows about Ai. We see an Ai neither Aqua nor his past self ever saw: an “country bumpkin” Ai who hadn’t a clue how to play the game.
But from the beginning, the stars were in her eyes. She didn’t have to develop them, she was born with them, just as Aqua and Ruby were. Kaburagi, an expert in reading people due to all of the bluffing done in his line of work, could tell when Ai started seeing someone. It’s when everything started clicking for her.
Ai got her start at a workshop at the Lala Lai theatre company, the same place Akane is from, though it wasn’t as big back then. Now it makes sense how she became a master of lies; like Akane, she was classically trained in acting. Kaburagi gives Aqua his next lead to follow, and in exchange, Aqua will be obligated to him. In an industry that is essentially nothing but obligations made, given, and exchanged.
In addition to life experience, MEM-cho also brings connections to the Love Now staff, one of whom got her and thus B Komachi an in at the famed Japan Idol Festival (JIF). Kana thinks it’s too early; they’re nowhere near the shape they need to be in to make a good impression.
Ruby thinks it will be fine—her optimism and hope has yet to be sapped from her—and she steers the conversation to who should be the group’s all-important center. Kana says it doesn’t matter, while Ruby and MEM get extremely competitive about it.
When they both wonder if perhaps Kana is the perfect center, Kana vociferously declines, then launches into a self-deprecating tirade so specific, Ruby asks if she’s okay. But in the finest joke in an episode full of them, Ruby rejects the notion Kana is a troublesome, cynical girl one moment, then calls her a troublesome cynical girl the next.
It should come as no surprise that neither Ruby nor MEM-cho are the strongest of singers, as judged by their subpar scores at their center-deciding karaoke competition. After going a few rowdy rounds, they browse for something calmer and quieter, and discover a treasure trove of Arima Kana tracks.
MEM-cho brings up a music video on her phone, and the two of them watch it. We the audience are drawn into the music video, and we see an whole new Arima Kana: One she played in front of the camera. It’s a gorgeous, classy presentation, and Han Megumi provides the beautiful vocals.
Ruby and MEM-cho are in awe. In the next karaoke booth, Kana puts up a 97 without breaking a sweat. Her character took an emotional beating this week, so I’m glad she could score some well-earned points at the end. Will she mend fences with Aqua, or come to grips with her feelings?
I really liked MEM-cho’s simple but poignant backstory, which seems like a classic case of obligated eldest child syndrome, but Kana remains my Best Girl in this series. I’m pulling for her all the way, even if I already know it’s the kind of show that’s more likely to pull the rug out from under me.
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